


Moments of Impact

by armydillo



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on The Vow, Bellarke, Canonical Character Death, Car Accidents, College, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, F/M, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hospitals, M/M, Marriage, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22194463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armydillo/pseuds/armydillo
Summary: “You weren’t at a bar last night, Clarke. Four days ago, you were brought in after getting in a bad car accident. You’ve been in a coma until this morning.”ORThe one where Clarke gets into a car accident and can't remember the past five years of her life including the part where she has a husband.The Vow AU Fic
Relationships: Abby Griffin/Jake Griffin, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Emori/John Murphy (The 100), Finn Collins/Clarke Griffin, Jasper Jordan/Maya Vie, Monty Green/Nathan Miller, Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 9
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've read pretty much every Bellarke fic there is and decided to finally try writing one. 
> 
> The idea for this fic is based off the movie The Vow.
> 
> As you'll probably be able to tell, I don't know anything about medicine or hospitals, so sorry for any inaccuracies.
> 
> Also a forewarning, I am a hopeless procrastinator, so feel free to yell at me to update faster.

_Life’s all about moments of impact and how they change our lives forever. But what if one day you could no longer remember any of them?_

_-The Vow_

It’s bright, so bright. This is the first thing Clarke registers as she squints her eyes open, adjusting her vision to the bright fluorescent lights. Her eyes feel heavy, like she’s been asleep for awhile, and her head is throbbing. She doesn’t remember drinking that much last night, but the familiar feeling of a hangover is starting to creep in. Wells had come over last night after work and insisted they go out. He likes to complain that Clarke doesn’t know how to have fun anymore since graduating medical school. At first, Clarke refused saying she had work the next day, but then he said that Clarke was starting to sound like her mother, and well if you knew Clarke’s mother, you would know that it was enough to get Clarke up and out the door, dragging Wells to the bar by the hand.

She actually had fun now that she thinks about it. The last few months had been really tough for Clarke with her father recently passing away and her and Finn moving into their new apartment. Knowing Wells, that’s probably exactly why he did it, and so she mentally reminds herself to call and thank him for last night. But now she has to get up. She has morning rounds every day this week and can’t afford to be late. Hopefully, she’ll still have enough time to shower before she has to leave.

It isn’t until she tries to get up that she fully registers her surroundings. She isn’t in her bedroom at all, she’s in a hospital room. What the heck? Did she already come into work and just fall asleep during her break? That must be what happened, but she doesn’t remember any of that. In fact, now that she thinks about it, she doesn’t really remember coming home from the bar last night either.

And something feels rough, like sandpaper, and when she looks down, she recognizes the starch white linen of the hospital gown that she is currently wearing. Clarke is really starting to panic now, horrible scenarios of blacking out and alcohol poisoning playing out in her head, anything to explain why she might have ended up in the hospital.

She needs to talk to Wells. Quickly scanning the room for her phone, she spots a purse on a chair that is pulled up to her bed, but it’s not hers. She doesn’t think it’s her mom’s either. God her mom is going to be pissed. Her own daughter being wheeled into her hospital with alcohol poisoning. Word has probably already spread to all the other medical interns that the youngest Griffin legacy had to have her stomach pumped.

She needs to get out of here and fast. She spots the nurse call button and reaches out to press it a few times. As she’s pressing the button, however, Clarke freezes. There, sitting delicately on that certain finger on her left hand which is currently in a cast, is a ring. Holy shit, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED LAST NIGHT! Clarke brings her finger closer to her face to inspect it. It’s a simple silver band with a square diamond in the center. It’s beautiful, but there’s definitely no doubt that that is a wedding ring on her finger. Oh god, please let this be a mistake. Clarke tries to be reasonable, maybe she just found the ring last night...and then put it on...and then got into a fight and broke her hand. Even in her head, the idea sounds unlikely. Oh who is she kidding, Clarke would never do that. She’s a boring, overworked, pasty medical intern, not fucking Rocky.

Clarke’s starting to feel faint, a flurry of worries running through her mind. Wells is going to pay for this. Almost as if on cue, she hears a flush coming from the bathroom in her room. She looks up hopefully as the door opens, but it’s not Wells that steps out but rather a girl that looks to be about Clarke’s age with dark brown hair and sharp features. She doesn’t look familiar, but as soon as the girl sees Clarke she stops.

“Oh my god, you’re awake!” the girl says, tears instantly springing to her eyes as she rushes forward and wraps Clarke in a tight hug. She cries into her shoulder while Clarke pats her back awkwardly and tries to think how she knows this girl. She’s pretty sure she doesn’t know her, maybe they met at the bar last night. Eventually the girl pulls away, wiping her eyes. “Sorry, it’s just, we were all so worried about you Clarke. We missed you,” she says.

Clarke tries to respond, but her voice won’t come out. She ends up making some sort of croaking noise, but the girl must understand because she pours a glass of water from the ugly pink pitcher by the bed. Clarke sips the liquid, and it burns going down her throat.

“Better?” the girl asks kindly.

“Yes, thank you.” A pause. “I, uh, I’m sorry. I think I’m having some trouble remembering. How do I know you?”

The girl gives her a strange look before saying slowly, “Clarke, it’s me, Octavia.”

“Did we meet at the bar last night?”

“Last night?”

Octavia looks just as confused as Clarke is. Her name doesn’t sound familiar, and she’s pretty sure they’ve never met. She knew Clarke’s name though, and the way she was looking at her, you would think she was her best friend.

“Do you know where Wells is?”

At this, Octavia gives her a strange look, something like pity. Ok, what is going on? Who is this girl? Obviously, she wasn’t at the bar last night, so Clarke has no idea how this girl knows her and Wells. She’s so confused and starting to get a really bad feeling. At that moment though, a young nurse that Clarke doesn’t know walks into the room. She looks surprised to see Clarke awake, but then smiles warmly and approaches the bed.

“Hi, I’m Maya, I’m your nurse. How are you feeling?” she asks as she takes a look at the heart rate monitor.

“I’m fine,” Clarke says impatiently, “but do you think you could tell me what’s going on?”

“There’s no need to worry dear. Everything is alright. You were in a car accident, but you’re ok.”

A car accident? But they didn’t drive to the bar last night; they took the subway. “No, that can’t be right.”

“I know it’s a lot to take in, and some confusion is perfectly normal. Just try and relax, ok?” Maya says sweetly.

Relax. That one word causes Clarke to snap. She’s had it with all this confusion and beating around the bush, it’s time to get answers. “No, I’m not going to relax! And I think you have your paperwork mixed up because I wasn’t in a car accident last night. All I know is that I went to a bar with my best friend Wells, and I woke up the next morning here. So if you could please tell me what’s going on, so I can get back to work with the rest of the surgical interns.”

There’s a long pause following Clarke’s outburst. Both Maya and Octavia are looking at her worriedly, like she might actually be crazy. This just pisses her off further, so when Octavia reaches out to grab her hand, Clarke yanks it away before she can.

“Clarke-”

“No! I don’t know you ok, and I don’t know what’s going on. Just tell me what happened.”

“You didn’t go to a bar last night, Clarke.”

“Yes I did, I was with Wells,” Clarke says firmly.

“You haven’t seen Wells in years.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Clarke practically yells. This is all becoming too much, and tears begin to pool in Clarke’s eyes. She looks away before they can fall, and Octavia sighs. Finally, Maya speaks up.

“You weren’t at a bar last night, Clarke. Four days ago, you were brought in after getting in a bad car accident. You’ve been in a coma until this morning.” At this, Clarke snaps her head back around, all the color draining from her face. No, this can’t be real. This doesn’t happen, not to her. This all has to be some horrible alcohol-induced dream. She’s going to wake up soon in her own bed, go to work, and laugh about this later with Wells and Finn. At her silence, Maya continues, “forgive me if this is an obvious question, but what year is it?”

“It’s 2014,“ Clarke says cautiously. Neither woman responds to her, and the silence hangs heavily in the air between them. It’s all beginning to hit her, and Clarke feels like she’s drowning. “Right?” she practically pleads.

“No, Clarke I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I’m going to page Dr. Tsing. She’ll be able to run some more tests to help figure out what’s going on.”

At that, Maya rushes from the room, leaving Clarke shell-shocked with Octavia. Clarke feels practically numb when she says, “Octavia, what year is it?”

She’s giving Clarke a sad, wounded look when she utters the two words that will change Clarke’s life as she knows it.

“It’s 2019.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's read, kudosed, and commented so far.
> 
> This chapter picks up pretty much right where chapter 1 left off. Hope you enjoy!

Five years. Clarke still can’t believe she can’t remember the last five freaking years of her life. It didn’t seem real at first, but then Octavia showed her the date on her phone and that’s what really made it sink in. The date yes, but also the phone itself. It was different from how Clark remembered them, a lot more modern. God what else has she missed out on.

A lot apparently given that she’s now currently married to someone at twenty-four, no wait, twenty-nine, but she’s trying not to think about that right now. Right now, Clarke is currently standing in the bathroom of her hospital room staring at her own reflection. It’s her, there’s no doubt about that even if her face still has some bruises and cuts from the crash, but she definitely looks different, older and more mature. Her hair is a lot shorter for one thing and she has a nose ring. Alright this isn’t so bad, she was expecting much worse, to not even recognize herself, but it’s still her...kind of. 

After splashing some water on her face, Clarke decides she’s starting to feel a bit better and goes back out to join Octavia. Octavia must have heard the door opening because as soon as Clarke enters room, she hears Octavia say, “I have to go, but I’ll see you when you get here. Bye,” and ends the call. 

“Who was that?” Clarke asks as she climbs back into bed.

“It was just Bell.”

“Who?”

“Right, um Bellamy is my brother, and you’re, well, husband,” Octavia says, gesturing vaguely at Clarke’s ring.

Clarke looks down at it. Her husband. She has a husband, and his name is Bellamy apparently. That’s a good name, right? She has all sorts of questions about him, about who he is and their relationship. How long have they been married, where did they meet, and what happened to Finn? But all Clarke can think to say in the moment is, “Oh.”

Octavia must pick up on her hesitation because she says, “don’t worry, I told him about your memory and everything. It’s just he had been here for days with you after the accident. The only way I could convince him to go home and get some rest was by promising to call him if there was any news. I hope that was alright?” Octavia says.

Clarke can only nod, but inside she’s freaking out because she’s about to meet her husband. She’s not ready for this, for any of it, but, oh well, I guess it’s better to just rip the band-aid off. He already knows she doesn’t remember him, so maybe it won’t be so bad. In her flurry of thoughts, Clarke blurts out, “what’s he like?”

Octavia smiles. “He’s smart, smarter than he’ll ever admit, kind of a nerd actually. He’s strong, and hardworking, and he doesn’t care about people easily. But once he decides to let you in, he’s the most lovable dork you’ll ever meet.”

Clarke can’t help but grin at Octavia’s explanation of her brother. He sounds nice and normal, and maybe even someone Clarke might enjoy spending time with. And hey if he’s related to Octavia, he probably isn’t bad looking either.

“Listen, Clarke I know you don’t remember him, but he really loves you ok? Just promise me you’ll keep an open mind.”

Octavia is looking at her hopefully, but Clarke hesitates. Maybe she actually has gone crazy because Clarke finds herself wanting to say yes. Maybe it was how Octavia described him or maybe it’s just the head trauma, but Clarke, or at least some part of her that she doesn’t remember, chose him as her husband. And until Clarke can figure out why, she wants to honor that choice, at least for now. And so without much thought, Clarke finds herself saying, “I’ll try my best.”

Octavia beams at her before saying, “Ok enough about him, let’s talk about us,” and launches into a twenty-minute explanation of their relationship. Basically they’re best friends. According to Octavia, Clarke moved across the city into the neighborhood of Arkadia about four years ago. She met Octavia pretty soon after in an advanced yoga class at the local community center and they hit it off. Clarke doesn’t remember ever doing yoga before in her life, let alone being good enough at it to be considered advanced, but that’s pretty standard for Clarke at this point. 

Anyways apparently, there was a girl named Roma in the class who considered herself some sort of yoga prodigy and took the class entirely too seriously. Before Clarke’s first class, she took one look at her and suggested an obvious newcomer like Clarke should hit the treadmill first to improve her fitness level before trying out this class. At that, Octavia jumped right in and said that an obvious bitch like Roma should shut her mouth to improve her personality before talking to others. Roma glared at them but remained silent; her only response was to keep loudly shushing them both as they kept chatting quietly during the beginning of the class. Octavia claims that she isn’t sure who started it, but her and Clarke then began making really loud and overly enthusiastic grunts every time they stretched into a pose in retaliation. Roma was glaring at them so hard that she fell out of her downward dog pose. It wasn’t until a noise complaint came from the children’s karate class next door that they were both asked to leave. Suffice to say Clarke and Octavia were banned for life from yoga classes at the rec center, and yet they both couldn’t stop laughing as they walked to their cars in the lot. It was Octavia who suggested they meet for coffee next week at the same time as their class would have been, and Clark, eager to make her first friend since the move, gladly accepted. 

It definitely isn’t your typical way to make friends, but Clarke still finds herself laughing along as Octavia finishes her story. It’s a bit surreal to be hearing about times you’ve had with someone that you have no memory of, but Clarke figures it’s best to just gather as much information as she can at this point. As they keep chatting, she also learns that Octavia is 25, four years younger than Clarke, that she’s lived in Arkadia her whole life, and that she currently works and co-owns a bar called Trikru with her fiance Lincoln. Octavia is in the middle of telling Clarke the story of how she introduced Octavia and Lincoln when a doctor walks into the room. 

She approaches the bed, and picks up Clarke’s chart to read it over.

“Mrs. Blake, it’s good to see you up and awake again. I’m Dr. Tsing, and I’ll be overseeing your recovery.”

It takes Clarke a moment to realize she’s talking to her. Mrs. Blake? Oh, Blake must be Bellamy’s last name. Ugh, Clarke Blake. Oh well, I guess it could be worse.

“Please, call me Clarke.”

“Ok Clarke, I understand that you had some memory issues when you woke up.”

“Yeah, well since it’s apparently 2019 and not 2014, I guess I don’t remember anything about my life up to this point.”

If this news shocks Dr. Tsing, she doesn’t show it. She simply asks her a few questions about her pain level and studies the chart for a few more moments before saying, “well everything looks good for now, but since we don’t know the extent of your head injury yet, my best guess would be retrograde amnesia. Although I’ll admit that this case would be a bit peculiar. Retrograde amnesia usually forms after a head trauma, which is what happened in your car accident, and what most likely triggered your memory loss. But patients normally don’t experience such a large time frame of memory loss. Usually it affects the short term memory, up to a few months beforehand. So, in your case, missing what, five years of your life? That’s very unusual. But with this form of amnesia, the effects do tend to improve over time.” 

“So she’ll remember everything eventually,” Octavia says quickly.

“Well...not necessarily. Patients don’t always remember everything, or everyone, but yes, they almost always gain some part of their missing memories back. But again, every head injury is different, so I’d like to schedule some tests and scans for tomorrow to get a better idea. 

Before Clarke can respond, however, someone practically sprints into the room. In an instant, the energy in the room shifts, and everything seems to pause. Slightly out of breath, the stranger freezes when his gaze falls on Clarke, a mixture of disbelief and hopefulness in his eyes. Again, he doesn’t look familiar to Clarke, but she can tell from the intensity of his gaze that they must know each other.

“Oh Mr. Blake, it’s good to see you again,” Dr. Tsing says helpfully. Shit, this is her husband! Clarke, too shocked to speak, can only stare at him. He’s tall. That’s the first thing Clarke notices about him. Tall with tan skin and dark, curly hair that’s long enough fall in his eyes. He’s dressed simply in a pair of wrinkled jeans and a tight-fitting white t-shirt that shows off the muscles in his arms. In short, he’s devastatingly hot, and the first tangible thought that comes to Clarke’s mind is damn, that’s my husband. She’s proud of herself! 

Octavia coughs, and Bellamy seems to come back to Earth. 

“Uh yes, it’s good to see you too Dr. Tsing. How is she doing?” Bellamy says as he makes his way to an empty chair next to Clarke’s bed. Dr. Tsing explains everything again to Bellamy, and they go back and forth for a few minutes as he asks her some more in-depth questions about her injuries and recovery. Clarke tunes it out though as she’s too busy staring transfixed at the man before her.

So this is him. He’s a lot closer now, and she takes a moment to study him. He has a scar on his upper lip and smattering of freckles on his cheeks. And he looks tired, with dark circles under his eyes and rumpled hair, like he just jumped out of bed which he probably did now that she thinks about it. 

She didn’t have a lot of time to imagine what her husband might look like, and yet as she looks at him now, she can’t help but think that he isn’t what she expected. Not that she’s complaining, not at all, but this is kind of insane. She’s meeting her husband for the first time, and she has absolutely no idea what to say to him or how to act. She feels like she’s in that romance movie where the girl wakes up from a coma to find out that her husband is Channing Tatum. 

Clarke glances down at thin gown that she’s wearing, and suddenly she feels self conscious. But then again, he’s seen her all sorts of naked, hasn’t he? Clarke blushes because no that’s the last thing she needs to be thinking about right now.

She tunes back in just as Dr. Tsing is giving her strict orders to take it easy and call for her if there’s any problems. And just like that she’s gone, and Clarke is left alone again with her apparent husband and best friend. There’s a moment of uncomfortable silence, at least Clarke is uncomfortable.

“Uh, hi,” Clarke says shyly.

“Hi,” Bellamy replies in a deep, raspy voice that gives Clark goosebumps.

“Nice to meet you.” 

Clarke sticks out her hand. Really a handshake, Clarke. But Bellamy only smiles, leaning closer to the bed to grasp her hand in his. His hand is warm and rough, and they shake for a moment longer than necessary, before he releases her. Clarke doesn’t know why she’s so nervous, she just needs to play it cool.

“So we’re married,” Clarke blurts out.

Bellamy and Octavia both laugh, and miraculously the tension in the room dissipates. Clarke lets out a relieved breath, at least she wasn’t the only one who felt unsure where to start.

“Yes, we are,” Bellamy says kindly.

“Cool, and um how long has that been a thing?”

“We got married in October, so it’s been about four months.”

“And how long had we known each other before that?”

“Well, we were engaged for about eight months before getting married, and we were dating for about a year before getting engaged. But I had known you for about two years before we started dating.”

“Why did it take so long for us to get together?” Clake can’t help but ask.

At this, Octavia bursts out laughing. “Yeah Bell, why did it take so long for you two to get together?” Octavia asks sarcastically.

Bellamy just rolls his eyes.

“I guess we kind of got off on the wrong foot at first.”

“That’s an understatement,” Octavia says.

“Why? What happened?” Clarke asks.

Bellamy hesitates, reaching up to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. “Well you sort of hated me at first, and I guess I was kind of an asshole.”

Clarke seriously doubts she ever hated Bellamy, but she asks him to tell her the story anyways. And so he tells her the story of how they met, with Octavia jumping in every now and then to emphasize how much of an idiot Bellamy was.

Bellamy claims that after a few months of her and Octavia hanging out, Octavia invited Clarke to the weekly game night that they held with their group of friends. Clarke met Bellamy when they literally ran into each other in the kitchen, their drinks spilling all over each other. It sort of went downhill from there from them both unjustifiably targeting each other in Shadowhunters to aggressively challenging each other’s answers in Scattergories. The night finally ended with Bellamy calling Clarke an entitled princess and Clarke throwing back that Bellamy was an arrogant asshole.

Clarke is alarmed that (a) any first meeting could possibly go that horribly and (b) that they somehow now ended up married. When Clarke says as much, Octavia exclaims that Bellamy liked her the whole time and was just being dumb while Bellamy just smiles fondly as if to some shared inside joke. So Clarke asks them what happens next, and they tell her. 

And that’s how it starts. Octavia and Bellamy telling her little stories here and there about her life. They tell her about all their friends, about how much of an asshole Bellamy was when he met Lincoln, about the time they all went camping and put Clarke’s air mattress on the lake while she was sleeping, about how Bellamy obsessively nursed her back to health when she got sick afterwards, about the time Clarke first kissed Bellamy to prove a point to some homophobic jackass, about how Clarke convinced Bellamy to go back to college. It’s surreal hearing about this life, one filled with friends and laughter and love. But it’s a life she doesn’t remember, so can it ever really be her’s?

After a few hours, Clarke starts to feel sleepy and her eyes begin to droop to the muffled sounds of Octavia teasing Bellamy. The last thing she registers before drifting off to sleep are her blankets being adjusted, a light pressure on her forehead and a deep soothing voice whispering, “sweet dreams Clarke.”


End file.
